Bread awd vegetable slices



UNITED STATES PATENT FFTQE.

JOSHUA DAVIES AND S. N. DAVIES, OF MUSKEGON, MICHIGAN.

BREAD AND VEGETABLE SLICER.

Speccaton of Letters Patent No. 25,633, dated October EL, 1859r To allwhom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J osHUA Davies and SARAH N. DAvms, both ofMuskegon, in the county of Muskegon and Sta-te of Michigan,

have invented a new and Improved Device for Cut-ting or Slicing Bread,Vegetables, &c.; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full,clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to theannexed drawings, making a part of this specifica tion, in which- Figurel, is a front view of our invention. Fig. 2, is a side sectional view ofthe same, taken in the line a', 0c, Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the twoiigures.

To enable those skilled in the art to fully understand and construct ourinvention we will proceed to describe it.

A, represents a horizontal bed or platform, at each side of which at itsfront end an upright B, is attached, the upper ends of which areconnected by a traverse bar C. To the front surface of each upright B, aplate a, is attached. These plates form guides for a knife D, the platesbeing so swaged as to form, when secured to the uprights, verticalgrooves or recesses to receive the ends of the knife D, which areallowed to move freely up and down in the grooves or recesses. The knifeD, is formed of a steel plate and its cutting edge is composed of aseries of V-shaped teeth b, as shown clearly in Fig. l, the teeth havingtheir cutting edges formed by basils at both sides of the plate. Theknife D, has a bar or'arm E, att-ached at right angles to its upper edgenear its center. This bar or arm E, passes through the traverse bar C,of the uprights B, B, and is attached by a pivot c, to a hand lever F,one end of which is pivoted to an upright support G, whose lower' end ispivoted to the front end of the platform A.

To the outer side of each upright B, a plate H, is attached by a setscrew d. The set screws pass into the uprights through horizontal oblongslots c, in the plates and therefore admit of the plates H, beingadjusted laterally. This will be understood by referring to Fig. 2, inwhich the slot and a set screw of one plate are shown by dotted lines.In each plate H, two curved slots f, f, are made, one above the other.The

form of these slots is shown clearly in Fig. 2, the upper portion ofthem being vertical and the lower portion inclined.

l, is a gage in each end of which two pins g, are driven, and these pinstit in the slots of the plates H. The gage I, is simply a rectangularplate or board and has such a position as to extend about the distanceof its height below the knife D, when the latter is fully elevated. Tothe gage T, a rod 71., is attached. This rod extends upward and isattached to a spring J, which is secured to the traverse bar C.

The operation is as follows 2-The bread or other substance K, to besliced is placed on the platform A, the knife D, elevated and the frontend of K, shoved in contact with the gage I, which determines thethickness of the slices. The knife D, is then forced down through K, bydepressing the lever F. Just previous to the knife D, reaching the endof its downward stroke, the lever F, strikes the spring J, and the gageI, is slightly depressed vertically and then outward owing to the formof the slots f. This movement of the gage I, allows the slice to fall byits own gravity and discharge itself freely from the device. Thevertical position of the slots prevents a casual outward movement of thegage when the bread or other substance to be cut is adjusted against itat the termination of each upward movement of the knife. The spring J,elevates the gage as the hand lever is raised. The slices may be cut ofany thickness by adjusting the plates H, so that the gage I, may be setat a dist-ance from the knife corresponding to the desired thickness ofthe slices.

@ne of the prominent advantages of our method of arranging the gage I,is that it remains in place until the slice is almost entirely cut,before it moves to allow of the escape of the slice. This peculiarmovement of the gage is due to the employment of the oblique slots f, inthe adjustable plates H, in which the supporting pins g, of the gage Imove.

It will be observed that the hand lever, in its descent, does not strikeor depress the spring J, until the stroke of the knife is almostcompleted and the slice almost cut. The end of the slice is thussupported by the gage I, till almost severed; and by this support, theslice is prevented from crumbling or curling or falling over so that abetter and neater slice is made, the bread when thus sliced presenting avery smooth and even appearance and without waste.

Another advantage of our improvement is that when spring J, isdepressed, the slots being oblique, the gage I, falls by its owngravity, descending outwardly so as to allow space for the slice to passinto any proper receptacle.

In those bread cutting devices that have the gage moved outward by rodand crank, the gage begins to move simultaneously with the knife, sothat the slice has no support in front while being cut, but is deprivedthereof the moment the knife begins to descend.

We do not claim broadly the operation of the gage by connection with theknife, but 20 Vhat we do claim as our invention and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-

Thearrangement and combination of the adjustable slotted plates H, gageI, rod L, spring J, and lever F, as herein sho-wn and described, so thatthe slice of bread shall be supported by the gage until the stroke ofthe knife is almost nished and so that the gage I, shall fall outwardlyon the depression of spring J, all as set forth.

JOSHUA DAVIE S. SARAH N.' DAVIE S.

Witnesses THOMAS WHEELER, EDWIN POTTER.

